A Portrait of The Black Heiress (Harry Potter)

Chapter X: Christmas And Decapitation

One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban.

No one could wait for the holidays to come. While the Slytherin common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons where their breath rose in a mist before them as they kept as close as possible to each other and their hot cauldrons.

"I do feel so sorry," drawled Draco, during a Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they are not wanted at home." He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle, the two big oafs, chuckled. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them. Draco had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that Slytherin had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next. He had misjudged his audience, though, as pretty much everyone was impressed by the way Harry had held on to his bucking broomstick. And those Slytherins who would have laughed anyway, took one look at an unamused Aglaia Black, and decided not to. So, Draco, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry about having no proper family.

His dramatics were interrupted when Aglaia and Pansy broke Slytherin decorum and fell into one of their now rather infamous arguments. Slytherin was to remain a united front in public but not even Gemma Farley could blame Aglaia for restricting herself only in not killing Pansy in front of witnesses.  It seemed the whole school knew that the two girls could not stand one another. There was no use hiding it or refraining from engaging in the taunts. So, whenever Pansy's voice levels rose to a screech, it seemed the whole Potions class was listening in to try and figure out what was happening. It was apparently a great source of entertainment.

"Parkinson, I'm going to need you to put those few remaining brain cells together and work with me here, okay?" said Aglaia between clenched teeth. "Valerian sprigs are supposed to cancel out the poisonous berries,"

"I know that!"

"Then why, for the love of all that's magical and good, are you adding them in now?"

"It says so in the book!"

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does!"

"You couldn't pour water out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel."

"Can't you ever just help people, instead of making sarcastic comments?" Complained Tracey Davis, sticking up for Pansy.

The whole class was entertained now. Blaise and Theodore were openly staring, grinning in approval. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had their heads hidden in their books to hopefully muffle out the sounds of their sniggers.

"Pansy, I don't know what else to tell you. If you drink this now, you'll die."

"I wasn't exactly planning on drinking a Forgetfulness Potion anyway!"

"Pity. Your potion would have proven the Law of Natural Selection."

Even Draco couldn't really hold in an amused grin anymore. In fact, Professor Snape had been steadily ignoring them, not even interfering while the noise levels were definitely above his preferred decibels. She took that as a sign of approval.

"Ugh," whined Tracey, stirring her own potion. "It's not supposed to be green."

"You're not doing it right," snapped Pansy, not having any patience left for Tracey Davis when she was trying hard to fix her own potion so Aglaia wouldn't find another reason to call her out.